There is no need to travel the country Ricky. We need to establish the interested parties first, then devise the structure for the body, our legislation, terms & conditions and then we can ask for promoters to sign up. (plus lots more)

true! i got a feeling some promotions are too comfortable where they are right now and wont sign up though......

To get the ball rolling i think that there needs to be a figurehead, someone who is well respected within the UK MMA scene that is also a nuteral party. Someone who has strong links with all the big players. We need to elect someone that all the promoters will listen too and agree to sign up to the governing body.

Someone like Ian Freeman or Gary Turner. Or both?

That person could travel the length and breath of the UK and get all the promoters to sign up.

I think Mc6pack has earned that position and that he has so far done good and still working behind the scenes. I think that a committee should be a representation of all factions of the fraternity. After all every sector will be affected. As for a figure head i disagree.

For the last 18 months or so I have looked at MMA governing bodies in Scotland. Mainly because of problems getting suitable venues, the problem being that most local authorities do not want MMA in the venues they control and they control most of the best venues.

The responce you get from councils is they will not allow MMA until it has a governing body and is recognised by Sports Scotland, this sounds easy enough but its not.
To be recognised by Sport Scotland a governing body must represent the majority of clubs/gyms/teams.
The govening body must be established for at least 2 years prior to any application being submitted.

There are a number of other criteria that you must meet as well but the 2 above are the main ones. I dont know what the situation is in the rest of the UK but I would imagine it is something similar.
I am more than happy to help in any way I can.

I'm in and I am happy to do whatever is needed, within the constraints of the time I have avilable.

At present, I don't think we have much.... first off, we need to agree what our goals are, both long term and shorter term. If we don't really define what we are after, we stand little chance of getting there.

Once we have a clear and defined goal, we can then work out what we need to do and who we need to talk to, in order to get us there.

We also want to make sure we pace this properly. So people aren't running off doing stuff.

I'd alos like to suggest that there is a 'public' facing team for this. So 5 or so individuals who are the point of communication and contact. Anymore will make for chaos. There can be more behind the scenes.

So let's start. What is our LONG TERM goal?... need to be S.M.A.R.T. (if you don't know what that is, get some back issues of MMA Unlimited )

TNA would like to be an active and committed part of this project. As a manager working with promotions and athletes worldwide I am in a great position to how this would benefit the fighter and promoters, third parties and most importantly the sport.

The Managers Handbook:

'Let us never negotiate out of fear and let us never fear to negotiate.'

Support

Any support I can give, I will. This is something all of us have been wanting for a good few years. If it is acheivable then it can only benefit everyone. As I have stated many times regulation and co-operation is the way forward.